AT&T Archives: Dialing the Nation

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In November of 1951, a historic cross-country phone call was made, New Jersey to California, from the mayor of Englewood to the mayor of Alameda. It wasn't historic like the first cross-country call made in 1915, but was important because it was the first-ever direct-dial long distance call.

Now, operators had been using a set of area codes since around 1943, when the first automatic toll switch had been installed. But it took massive automation in the network to allow customers to accomplish the same task. By 1947, the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) was worked out, and there were 86 standard area codes available for possible use. The first communities that could use this system were Englewood and Teaneck, both in New Jersey, since 201 for NJ was the first area code ever assigned. And customers in these two NJ towns couldn't use all of the area codes — they could dial only 11 cities across the country directly: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Providence, Sacramento, and San Francisco.

The film "Dialing the Nation" shows a family changing their vacation plans and having to call grandma in Chicago — using her area code, 312 — to let her know. By the time this film was made, 9 out of 10 phones in the U.S. had dial capability, only some rural communities still had to get all of their calls (local, and, of course, long distance) routed through an operator.

By 2011, 379 of the possible 900 area codes had been assigned to zones in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, and toll-free and pay-per-call groups. One can also see when newly-assigned area codes will go into effect at the NANP website.

Note: Though they say in the film that the city it depicts "really doesn't matter," it is actually Englewood, New Jersey.

Footage Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center, Warren, NJ

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